Category: Articles

On AFSI’s April mission trip we visited the wheat fields of Yitzhar with Ayelet and Akiva HaCohen whose drive and determination have created a very successful flour mill. Neighboring Arabs are constantly planning to burn down the fields. AFSI agreed to help with building a fire wall. Helen Freedman recently corresponded with Ayelet and Akiva to see if they were safe from the fires.

“Today we had another fire that the Arabs torched, this time closer to our house, but we weren’t worried because we knew the fire wall path that we paved with your contribution would stop it and that is exactly what happened!  

Below are a few pictures of the fire stopping as it approaches the path and the security car on the path making sure it doesn’t pass it.”

Ayelet and Akiva HaCohen

Read about the squad of US firefighters who are volunteering (and not all are Jewish) to protect Israel’s south from the Hamas kite terror attacks HERE. Thank you!

Recognize Golan Heights Sovereignty

EMET has launched a petition today calling on the US Administration to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Because of the seven-year brutal Syrian civil war, the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken advantage of the situation, and Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces have penetrated as far south as the Syrian town of Quneitra. Iran is determined to build a land bridge stretching from Tehran to Beirut to Damascus and to the Mediterranean Sea.

A United States recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is critical at this time, to ensure the safety and national security interests of the U.S. and Israel, and it would send a strong message to Tehran that their hegemonic aspirations must not go on, unchallenged.

Members of Congress have called for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, but it is important that the American people send a message to the Administration as well.

We encourage everyone to sign and share the petition with your friends, colleagues, and contact lists.

Right now Israelis are huddling in bomb shelters, trying to protect their families from Hamas terror rockets. They need to hear from us. Tell the Israeli people you are with them by adding your name at ISupport Israel

When 100,000 signatures are reached, the names will be delivered to the Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office.

Courtesy of The Israel Project

Two hundred activists held a protest on the ruins of Sa-Nur as part of a campaign to force the government to rebuild the community. Sa-Nur was one of four northern Samaria communities that the government destroyed in 2005 as part of its disengagement plan.

In AFSI’s July 23 newsletter, we first reported that the residents of the Sa-Nur and Homesh communities turned to leaders of the coalition factions, demanding that the Disengagement Law be approved to end these disgraceful expulsions from northern Samaria.

Dozens of Sovereignty Youth members from all parts of the country attended a special two-day seminar where they were exposed to the challenges of applying Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and various ways of coping with those challenges.

Sovereignty Movement co-chairwomen Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar sum up the seminar with satisfaction: “They proved again that they are aware of the significance of timing and the great importance of the mission on the shoulders of their generation, the mission of sovereignty. The youths were the ones who initiated the seminar and we designed the structure of the seminar together with them, which turned out to be much more than was planned.”

Full story HERE.

Sderot boasts the world’s largest underground fortified playground, extending 25,000 square feet and containing 300 tons of 25-gauge steel. This playground was and continues to be instrumental during intense rocket attacks that began before the Gush Katif expulsion of 2005. It’s become a hub for families, schools and visitors—a safe place giving the area’s residents a chance to feel at ease.

AFSI’s first reaction to this playground was one of disapproval. Why should the solution to the never-ending rocket attacks be that Jews go underground? Why not eliminate the attackers? It’s been at least 15 years since Sderot has endured this situation. Isn’t it time for it to end? Do hairsplitting legal advisers prohibit the IDF from wiping out the enemy because some legality or claims of human rights are violated? This is unconscionable since the lives and health of the citizens of Sderot and neighboring communities are under threat. The government must come up with a better solution than sending Jews underground.

Story HERE.

For those who doubted Israel as a nation, Hebrew as its official language and the Blue Star of David as its official flag —-DOUBT NO MORE!

The Knesset overnight Wednesday-Thursday passed into law the nation-state bill that for the first time enshrines Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people” in its quasi-constitutional Basic Laws.

Full text of the Nation State Law HERE.

The Knesset approved a law earlier this week that would limit Palestinian access to the High Court of Justice and expand jurisdiction of the Administrative Court beyond sovereign Israel.

This marks a 51-year change in the way Judea and Samaria land cases will be handled, by moving them first to an administrative court which previously did not have judicial purview with regard to Judea and Samaria.

The bill is a win-win for Judea and Samaria as it will “normalize the lives of the residents,” said JM Ayelet Shaked, who championed the legislation.

Story HERE.

A home in Sderot is hit and four family members are now in the hospital undergoing surgery. A synagogue and playground are also hit. Families sleep together in safe rooms. The situation is intolerable and the IDF must take control.

Defeating the enemy is the ONLY option!!

Unfortunately it was a very tense and trying weekend as Hamas fired 200 rockets and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Attempts were made to breach the security fence and infiltrate Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF responded accordingly..

Read the full IDF report.

More on this subject:

Weekend rocket attacks saw four Israelis injured at home.

Synagogue hit by rocket – Major Keren Hajioff reports.

Hamas does not decide ceasefire. PM Netanyahu, at the urging of Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, visited the residents of the south and listened to their feelings over the difficult weekend they experienced. Davidi clearly stated that there should be no ceasefire and that Israel must strike back hard at the terrorists

We like Eric Ruskin’s Arutz Sheva OpEd which remembers the great Statesman, writer, orator, soldier and Zionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky on the anniversary of his yahrzeit (29 Tammuz 1940).

Jabotinsky knew all too well that though Jews have HaTikvah, Arabs have their own “hope,” one focused on the destruction of the Jewish State, no matter its size.

Ruskin states: “One of the best ways to pay tribute to the memory of this man of ideas and action is to put into practice a central lesson of his extraordinary life by calling for victory in Israel’s just and moral struggle against its enemies.”

Read more HERE on why Yaakov Hoegel says Jabotinsky is still relevant.